Take a look at your friends’ Facebook profiles. Chances are that they are putting forward the “best” version of themselves. You see them going on exotic vacations, dining at fine restaurants, and living up quite the exciting life. It looks like they are achieving all kinds of success and enjoying all kinds of happiness.
Some of them might indeed be leading these kinds of lives, but by definition, most of your friends are probably leading regular lives, just like you and me. They’re normal, meaning that the majority of their days are likely occupied with going to work, watching television, and enjoying the occasional leisure activity. What you see on Facebook isn’t the whole picture; it’s a performance.
The rock star skateboarder is just a very slim slice of reality.
It’s not just Facebook either. This phenomenon encompasses all kinds of social media, from Twitter to Tumblr. Many people feel the pressure of the performance, because they feel they need to live up to the expectations set out by the other Facebook performers on the stage. If Joan just went to Cuba, I need to show that I just went to Malaysia, for example. If Jack is really happy with his new iPhone, I need to show how happy I am with my new MacBook.
As a social species, for better or for worse, we are constantly judging one another. We compare ourselves to our peer group to see how we are faring at life, from the realm of the work to the realm of personal relationships. That’s part of the reason why so many people get addicted to Facebook in the first place; they’re checking up on their peers. It’s almost voyeuristic, even if it’s voluntary.
And with this comes the social media performance anxiety. You figure that your presence on Facebook has effectively put your life on a stage. It’s out there for people to view and critique, so you typically only put out the very best version of yourself. This anxiety can lead itself to depression in some, but it’s more about the pressure that everyone else feels as a result.
If you truly did not care what anyone else thought of you, would you have stepped up on that stage in the first place? Food for thought.
Yes I want to be noticed. Yes I want the positive feedback and recognition. No I am not on Facebook for the stage and the to look good. I’m there because it was the thing to do at work a few years ago and we all got on, friended each other and talk back and forth. I ended up addicted to Mafia Wars, which I quit cold turkey because it was running my Facebook and my free time.
My Facebook profile picture is my son Andrew, and you can see all the pictures are of my family, which as you know from here and the conversations on Twitter they are very important to me.
I believe Facebook, twitter, email and all other forms of computer communication all have a lot of non-emotional, lack of people skills inherent in them. We as a society have become less understanding and more daring because the person is not in front of us. We have more bravado and no way to judge the other person because we can’t see their facial expressions and emotions.
Maybe that is why we have a lot more senseless violence in the world. We don’t know how to interact with each other.
Ain’t it so true, sad but true. We don’t know how to interact with each other anymore.
Advancement in mobile technologies and the advent of social networking had permeated our lives to the point of it being destructive.
I cringe to think what the “Facebook Generation” will grow up to be like.
I am not on Facebook, or any other social networking sites for the stage and to look good.
It would be so silly, and so tiring, to be keeping up appearances all the time.
Just be yourself, embrace the good, the bad and the ugly. Don’t live your life for others.